CDRS.COLUMBIA.EDU

Serving the Digital Scholarship Needs

of the University

Rebecca KennisonColumbia University Libraries

February 12, 2010

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Key Principles

• Technology adoption and innovation do change roles

• People can now work whenever and wherever

• IT support will become increasingly decentralized

• Global and interdisciplinary collaboration is a given

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Trends in Academia

• Digital innovation in all disciplines• Increased awareness concerning IP• Reconsideration of academic reward

system while still embracing traditional publications

• Rethinking peer review, credentialing• Global collaboration and sharing• Need for robust data management

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How quickly the world changes!

This map, drawn by Randall Munroe in 2007, represented the most popular online communities of the time as islands and continents. Land size was based roughly on the number of users of each service. URL: http://xkcd.com/c256.html

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And, yes …

even academia will change!

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Slide from presentation by Michael Lascarides, New York Public Library, “Uncovering Stories,” November 19, 2009

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Slide from presentation by Michael Lascarides, New York Public Library, “Uncovering Stories,” November 19, 2009

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Grew up with personal computers

Slide from presentation by Michael Lascarides, New York Public Library, “Uncovering Stories,” November 19, 2009

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Always had the Web

Slide from presentation by Michael Lascarides, New York Public Library, “Uncovering Stories,” November 19, 2009

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Always had media abundance (e.g., iPod)

Slide from presentation by Michael Lascarides, New York Public Library, “Uncovering Stories,” November 19, 2009

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Technologies in Mainstream

• Next 12 months: mobile computing, open content

• Next 2-3 years: e-books, simple augmented reality

• Next 4-5 years: gesture-based computing, visual data analysis

Larry Johnson et al. 2010. The 2010 Horizon Report. Austin, TX: The New Media Consortium. URL: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdf

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Ted Schadler. 2010. Forrester Research: Collaboration Needs Will Fuel a Smartphone Surge. URL: http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/collaboration_needs_will_fuel_smartphone_surge/q/id/48066/t/2

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Collaboration Tools

Ted Schadler. 2010. Forrester Research: Collaboration Needs Will Fuel a Smartphone Surge. URL: http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/collaboration_needs_will_fuel_smartphone_surge/q/id/48066/t/2

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Role of Collaboration Platform Expands

“How is your firm using collaboration platforms (e.g., Microsoft SharePoint, Lotus Notes)?”

Source: Forrester Research, Enterprise and SMB Software Survey, North America and Europe, Q4 2009

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Web 2.0 Correlates Broadly to Collaboration Platforms

“For which of the following activities is your firm currently using Web 2.0 tools and technologies?”

Source: Forrester Research, Enterprise and SMB Software Survey, North America and Europe, Q4 2009

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Observations• Ready information at fingertips, any

time, anywhere• Do-it-yourself search and discovery

(a.k.a. research)• Experts need not be acquaintances,

local• Information most likely to come from

supervisors, colleagues, friends and provided electronically

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Today’s Undergrads,Tomorrow’s Grad Students

• Find initial information through course readings and Google

• Turn to professors and instructors when they need further guidance

• Use library resources on their own and rarely interact with library staff (80% never do)

Alison Head and Michael Eisenberg. 2009. Project Information Literacy Progress Report: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age.

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Today’s Grad Students, Tomorrow’s Junior Faculty

• Find literature almost exclusively through professors’ guidance and via their own searches – almost never from a librarian

• Are concerned about losing data, but rarely do anything about it

• Learn new technology by trial and error and from peers, not manuals or experts

Ryan Randall et al. 2008. The Next Generation of Academics: A Report on a Study Conducted at the University of Rochester. URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1802/6053

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Today’s Junior Faculty, Tomorrow’s Tenured Faculty• Use librarians only to order materials, rarely visit library• Often actively discouraged from pursuing digital projects,

told to focus on traditional publication routes (monographs, peer-reviewed journals with high impact factors)

• Very keen to have their digital work rewarded, but will do what is necessary for tenure

• Wish senior faculty would blaze trail more• Much more willing to share publicly ongoing research,

published research• Insist when they are senior faculty, they will take risks,

allow more risks to be taken, esp. as traditional publication routes become more restricted and restrictive (e.g., monographs, only certain journals)

Diane Harley et al. 2010. Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication: An Exploration of Faculty Values and Needs in Seven Disciplines. URL: http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc

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Today’s Faculty

• Very rarely go to the library, and when there never use librarians

• Find formal published proceedings useless, but like Web conferences

• Want help with Web design and support, in creation of online publications (monographs, journals)

• Wish institution would provide clear guidance for tenure, promotion

Diane Harley et al. 2010. Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication: An Exploration of Faculty Values and Needs in Seven Disciplines. URL: http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc

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“The conclusion I came to was that change to the status quo was a

really hard sell because the senior people were too self-important to

want to change, and the junior people were too frightened to want

to change. That’s a pretty good formula for things not changing.”

− UC History Professor

Diane Harley et al. 2010. Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication: An Exploration of Faculty Values and Needs in Seven Disciplines. URL: http://escholarship.org/uc/cshe_fsc

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Stanford E-Dissertations

• Immediately available: 36 out of 60• 6-mo embargo: 10 out of 60• 1-yr embargo: 9 out of 60• 2-yr embargo: 5 out of 60• Full text eventually publicly

available: 47 out of 60• Creative Commons non-commercial

attribution license: 52 out of 60http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/january18/electronic-dissertation-folo-012010.html

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What Do Researchers Want?

• Stable storage• Secure collaboration• “Dead simple” digital tools that can

be or become natural part of workflow

• Wide dissemination of work (as long as properly rewarded)

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Digital Resources Used

Nancy Maron and Kirby Smith, 2008. Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication. URL: http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/current-models-report.pdf

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What Do They Want from Libraries?

• Global e-access to publications, databases• Conservation, data migration/preservation• Metadata standards, taxonomies,

ontologies• Digitization of research materials• Archiving, curation, dissemination of

scholarly output of all types• Technical support

– GIS, computational data analysis, visualization, multimedia publishing

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Addressing the Needs

• Digital repositories• Digitization• Digital collections, digital projects• Virtual research environments• Information commons

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What We’re Doing at CDRS

• Research repository• Conferences and video services• Journals• Online books• Scholarly Communication Program

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Research Repository

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Repository Outreach

• Department chairs and select faculty• Center directors and select faculty• Follow-up focused on grey literature,

theses, research data for biomedical• Editors-in-chief• Conference organizers• Discussions with Graduate School of

Arts and Sciences about dissertations

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Conferences

• Caste and Contemporary India 2009

• Cities in Revolt: The Dutch-American Atlantic, ca. 1650-1815

• Columbia Undergraduate Science Symposium

• Cultural Formations• The Digital Middle Ages:

Teaching and Research 2010

• Women in Silent Film

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Journals

• Awaaz: The Voice of South Asia

• Columbia Business Law Review

• Columbia Undergraduate Science Journal

• Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development

• Cultural Formations• Journal of Anthropological

Research• Journal of Gender and Law• National Black Law Journal

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Online Book Project

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Scholarly Communication Program

• Information about issues (e.g., NIH)

• Coordination of copyright talks

• Administration of Columbia OA Publication Fund

• Research Without Borders speaker series

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2010 Projects

• Self-deposit for Academic Commons, RSS feed widget for Web sites

• Secure collaboration platform• Electronic portfolio• Women Film Pioneers wiki• Additional journals• Conferences• New Scholarly Communication site

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Let’s Talk!

Rebecca Kennison, DirectorCenter for Digital Research and ScholarshipColumbia University201 Lehman LibraryInternational Affairs Building420 West 118th StreetNew York, NY 10027Tel.: 212-851-2812E-mail: rkennison@columbia.eduWeb site: http://cdrs.columbia.edu